Chief Executive Officer of DIGICEL’s Guyana operations Mark Linehan has told Stabroek Business that last Sunday’s launch of the company’s GSM cellular service at Mahdia reflects the company’s conviction that the creation of a competitive environment in the telecommunications sector offers more choice to Guyanese consumers while providing greater opportunity for the economic advancement of the country.
DIGICEL’s new Mahdia cellular service commissioning ceremony held just four days before the first anniversary of the company’s February 14, 2007 launch in Guyana, came just two weeks after its competitor, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) commissioned its own cellular service at Mahdia.
The new Mahdia site is one of four new sites erected by DIGICEL as part of its interior build-out. Linehan told Stabroek Business that the company had turned out a new site at Kwakwani on Tuesday and that two new sites at Santa Rosa and Port Kaituma were due to be turned out shortly. The new DIGICEL sites were set up by team of telecommunications engineers from the world famous Ericksson company supported by a local team whom Linehan said would be responsible for the maintenance of the equipment. He said that the new 45-meter tower at Mahdia has been equipped with modern expander solution technology provided by Ericksson which allowed for a communication range of four kilometers more beyond the cell site than its competitor’s.
And according to Linehan the competition which has characterized the cellular industry ever since DIGICEL’s launch last year would continue during 2008. He disclosed that since entering the local cellular market a year ago DIGICEL had surpassed 200,000 customers. “This is a phenomenal achievement and our main priority in 2008 is to become the leading cellular service provider in Guyana. We already have 20 per cent more cellular sites than our competitor and we will be working on further enhancing the effectiveness of our signal in areas where there is the greatest traffic,” Linehan said.
Meanwhile Linehan told Stabroek Business that DIGICEL welcomed the recent announcement that talks between the Government of Guyana and GT&T over ending the monopoly in the cellular industry will begin this week. “We welcome this development because it takes the industry closer to the condition of real competition which we believe is good for the industry, for investment in Guyana and for the country’s economy,” Linehan said. Asked whether DIGICEL would be monitoring unfolding developments in the monopoly talks Linehan said the company would be following the discussions as closely as it can.
